Sleeping Diagonally

Until about 67 days ago, I slept with sheets and blankets, utilizing a 3 ft. diameter of mattress space despite its great width and refusing to move at all during the night so making my bed in the morning wasn’t a mammoth effort of un-wrestling various layers into a neat order. Some say I should just leave the bed unmade and to you I ask, how do you sleep at night? But that’s another topic. Now I sleep with a down comforter. The unspoken comfort of my friend’s bed convinced me that one perfect layer is better than several marginal ones all hoping in their own wrinkled way to provide that perfect sleep. It wasn’t happening. And now that I sleep in a bed bigger than a matchbox, I even sleep diagonally. I’m free. Oh the liberty.

Ok- WARNING-the next thought is a leap but go with me.

Jesus started out in the world in swaddling clothes. Can you imagine how restrictive that would be? Poor kid has been born the Son of God, but his mother still wraps him like a burrito. Give the kid a break. (Editorial note- I get the burrito thing…it’s still a funny image.) Jesus obviously figured out how to move his arms, walk and talk. But think then about God becoming human. Talk about constraint. Jesus had to learn to roller skate by falling down, to avoid eating hot things by burning his tongue, and to build up the courage to ask a girl to dance. That’s a lot of humanness to require of someone who can move mountains. But Jesus grew into his skin. He found ways to live, work, pray, play, and be free of most bindings or limitations we humans often put on ourselves.

How? God had set him free of petty struggle and instead gave him power to live a life of loving God his Father and loving people. It was if God has said, “You can sleep diagonally in your bed."

For the last week I’ve been reading Ephesians 1 over and over in different translations. Apostle Paul so encouragingly reminds us that God loves us no less than he did Jesus. We’re on his fridge, too. We’re in the will. And with that love comes power. The same power God gave Jesus, he gave us. Think about that. That’s INCREDIBLE! What would happen if we took full advantage of that power as Jesus did? Perhaps our relationships would be deeper, our prayers longer and more honest, our complaints fewer and shorter. Through belief in Jesus and God’s love, we’re no longer constrained to sleep rigidly or live in swaddling clothes. We’re free to stretch out. We are free to grow up and into all that God has planned us for as his powerful and energized children.